1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical interferometer and a signal synthesizer, and particularly to an optical interferometer applied to an optoelectronic device for performing signal processes for operations or communications, which are emploing optical pulses and a signal synthesizer using the optical interferometer.
2. Description of the Related Art
On/off switching of output optical pulses using the difference in phase between two optical paths of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is a well-known technique. However, since a long pulse of sub-nanoseconds or so has heretofore been used, the spectrum of the pulse is very narrow. Further, the conventional Mach-Zehnder interferometer controls the intensities of the output optical pulses but encounters difficulties in controlling their spectra.